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Google Doodles Indian Physicist

Google re-designed its search engine’s homepage Thursday in honor of Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, a Nobel Prize winner and one of India’s most famous physicists.

The Google doodle, a graphic incorporating Raman’s picture and a representation of his discovery about the nature of light, commemorates the 125th anniversary of his birth on Nov. 7, 1888 in Trichinopoly in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Raman completed his undergraduate studies from Presidency College in Chennai, winning the first place and a gold medal for Physics in 1904, the subject for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930.

Mr. Raman’s discovery that the wavelength of light changes when it is deflected by molecules earned him the Nobel Prize. The phenomenon is known as the “Raman Effect” in his honor.

His father was a lecturer in mathematics and physics, but science wasn’t the first career choice for Mr. Raman.

After completing his graduate studies with the highest distinctions in 1907, he joined the Indian finance department. But managed to take time out to carry out his experiments in the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in Kolkata.

In 1917, he began teaching Physics at the University of Calcutta earning a much lower salary than in his government job.

After spending 15 years in Kolkata, Mr. Raman taught at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore from 1933 to 1948.

In 1924, he became a fellow of the Royal Society, the premier scientific body in the U.K. which draws accomplished scientists from all over the world. He was knighted in 1929.

In 1948, he founded the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore to continue his studies and research. He served as the director of the institute.

Besides studying the properties of light, Mr. Raman also worked on the structure and properties of diamond and the physiology of human sight.

He was awarded numerous awards in addition to the Nobel and was among the first to win the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor, in 1954.

Mr. Raman died on Nov. 21, 1970.

On Nov. 5, Google also made a similar doodle on the occasion of the anniversary of Shakuntala Devi’s. birth. Ms. Devi was a renowned Indian mathematician known as the human calculator.